Advisory and fractional CFO
Fractional CFO Services for Ontario Small Business
Last reviewed: August 2026
Most owner-managed businesses do not need a full-time CFO. They need someone to look at the numbers with them once a month and ask the questions nobody in the business is asking.
What this actually involves
Cash flow forecasting
A rolling 13-week view, so the HST payment and the corporate balance do not both land in the month your revenue drops. For seasonal trades this is the single most useful thing on this page.
Salary versus dividend planning
Rerun annually rather than set once. Ontario's 2026 corporate rate cut and the dividend tax credit reduction from January 2027 move in opposite directions, so a mix set before 2026 is worth rechecking.
See the arithmetic both waysPricing and margin review
By job for contractors, by service line for clinics. Most owners discover at least one line they have been running at a loss, and it is usually the one they are busiest with.
Purchase and hiring decisions
Buy or lease, this year or next, in the corporation or personally, and what the first employee actually costs once CPP, EI, WSIB and the unproductive first three months are counted.
KPI reporting
Four or five numbers that matter for your business, reported monthly, in a format you will actually read. Not a 30-page management pack nobody opens.
Structure questions
Whether a holding company is worth it, when a second corporation makes sense, how to bring in a partner, and what needs to be true before any of that is a good idea.
When it is worth it, and when it is not
Worth it if: revenue is over roughly $750,000, you have staff, you are making decisions with real money attached, or the business is growing faster than the systems behind it.
Not worth it if: you are a one-person corporation with predictable revenue and no staff. At that stage the compliance package plus a proper year-end planning conversation covers it, and we will say so.
Frequently asked questions
What is a fractional CFO?
Someone doing the financial thinking a full-time CFO would do, for a few hours a month instead of a full salary. Forecasting, margin analysis, reporting and the questions that come before a big decision, rather than the compliance work of preparing returns.
How is this different from bookkeeping and tax?
Bookkeeping and tax tell you what already happened and file it correctly. Advisory work is about the decisions still in front of you: what to price, what to buy, when to buy it, who to hire and how to take money out of the company.
Do I have to use you for bookkeeping as well?
It works better if we do, because the reporting is only as good as the underlying books. We do take advisory-only engagements where the existing bookkeeping is genuinely clean.
What does it cost?
Advisory sits at the upper end of our plans and is quoted as one monthly fee, in writing, before we start. We work the number out with you on the call.
How often would we actually meet?
Monthly for most clients, with reporting delivered before the meeting so the time is spent on decisions rather than on reading. Quarterly works for businesses with steadier numbers.
Can you help with a bank or lender request?
Yes. Lender packages, covenant reporting and cash flow projections for a financing application are common requests, and they are usually quoted as one-off work unless advisory is ongoing.
Find out whether it is worth it for you
Twenty minutes on the phone, free. If the answer is that you do not need this yet, that is what you will hear.